CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR – Can the Air Force require airmen to swear ‘So help me God’ to reenlist?

Published On: September 15, 2014|Categories: Top News|2 Comments|

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“The case law is so universally settled in this precise area that even actors who play lawyers on TV or in the movies could win this one in court,” writes Michael Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and a US Air Force Academy graduate who served in the judge advocate corps.

“When one ‘affirms’ such an oath of office, there is NO need to ‘swear’ to ‘God’ to do so,” Mr. Weinstein writes in an online op-ed. “Such is the very distinction between ‘swearing and affirming.’ [Federal law] allows either to be done by the enlisting or commissioning Air Force member.”

“The USAF’s transparent duplicity and specious motivations for basing its new decision to force service members to swear to God are dangerous, disingenuous and despicable,” Weinstein writes.

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2 Comments

  1. Mayfly September 16, 2014 at 1:14 pm

    What could be clearer than Article 6 of the US Constitution:

    “…but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

  2. Odo September 17, 2014 at 12:55 pm

    The AF just announced that they will revert to the old language that does not require the last four words. I can hear Todd Starnes grinding his teeth from here…
    (Actually, he’s probably happy the AF did this; if he can’t generate outrage, he doesn’t sell books)

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